Background

These are the ramblings of James, a full-time RVer.

The Early Years

I was born and raised near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and traveled with my parents as a kid. We went up and down the east coast, the west coast, and the Rockies on various trips, staying mostly in hotels or with friends or relatives.

I went to Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, to study aerospace engineering, and I became a Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer. When I was in grad school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I still wanted to travel, but money was short, so I took up camping and backpacking. That opened up new areas to photograph and explore because I was able to camp near good sunset and sunrise locations and I was no longer restricted to day hikes. One particularly nice early backpacking trip was two weeks in Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. I was into nature photography, and carried a Minolta manual-focus SLR with 28mm, 50mm, and 70-210mm lenses on those backpacking trips.

I entered the corporate world as an aerospace engineer with McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach, California, and I continued working there after Boeing bought us out. I enjoyed the southern-California climate and exploring the backcountry of California, but two weeks of time off for good behavior a year, aka vacation, was a drag.

After seven years of engineering, I took a year-long sabbatical to figure out what I wanted to do next because the job was no longer rewarding. I traveled around the world by planes, trains, and automobiles, and discovered that traveling and photography were a whole lot of fun.

On The Road — Take 1

I left the corporate world in 2002, sold my townhouse, and moved into a Chevy Suburban which I had outfitted to accommodate all of my gear and provide sleeping space. I had moved up to a Canon autofocus SLR system with two EOS 1V bodies, zoom lenses to cover 16-400mm, and a 500mm f4. Shooting close to the vehicle became more attractive because I didn't want to carry that heavy 1V body and a few lenses too far, so I was back to short hikes and the occasional day hike.

I couldn't figure out how to start a freelance nature photography business on the road, so I settled near Denver, Colorado. There was good scenery nearby, and I was close to a major airport to facilitate overseas travel. I moved to digital capture in late 2004 with a Canon EOS 1D Mk II and quickly added a Canon EOS 1Ds Mk II.

You may visit my photography website to view my work and purchase cards or prints with my images.

A Companion!

I met J through a Denver-area photography club. Her prior travel to Alaska, her preference for forging her own path in life, and her desire to live full-time in an RV drew me to her. We started going on photo shoots together, and then we became best friends and companions.

An RV

J had done a lot of research into RV models and had settled on a Bigfoot because of their cold-weather capability. All of the water tanks are within the insulated shell, and the vehicles are well insulated. I could envision running a nature photography business from an RV because there would be a nice office to return to during the middle of the day when shooting isn't good. We visited a local Bigfoot dealer to try out various models, and settled on either a 30MH29RQ (a 29RQ) or a 30MH29SL (a 29SL).

We purchased a used 2005 Bigfoot 29SL in April 2008, then started to set it up to live in full time. The former owner had the RV custom built with the usual back bedroom set up as an office, so it was easy for me to make modifications to have two desks along with additional shelves for some books and printers. I installed an AM Solar solar-electric system, including a Xantrex Prosine 1000W inverter, four new 100 Ah Lifeline AGM batteries, and a Link 10 battery meter (originally used in my Suburban electrical system) with the help of Andy Baird. Andy is a full-time RVer and a good friend of J's. He provides a quick introduction to full-timing in his article titled Saving the Earth at 8 mpg and a wealth of information about full-timing in his Eureka! package.

On The Road — Take 2

We set out in June 2008 to explore and photograph North America.

This blog starts with our trip to Alaska in July 2009.